Cover: The Analysis of Effectiveness of Programs in Elementary and Secondary Education.

The Analysis of Effectiveness of Programs in Elementary and Secondary Education.

by Michael Carpenter, Marjorie L. Rapp

Purchase Print Copy

 FormatList Price Price
Add to Cart Paperback $23.00 $18.40 20% Web Discount

A discussion of effectiveness from two points of view: ways in which the effectiveness of various aspects of a school district's program may be measured and analytical techniques for using these measures. Basic to the assessment of the effectiveness of a program element is the selection of appropriate goals. These will vary according to the type of program element and the characteristics of the student population. Measures of effectiveness when related to resources provide a useful guide to allocation of resources within program elements. As yet, there is no way to find the best allocation among program elements. However, if the resourceeffectiveness relationships are known for each program element, more efficient allocations can be made. General principles for assessing effectiveness are: the guage of effectiveness is tied to the problem; systems being compared should be the same in all respects that would affect output, except those being examined; all of the major outputs should be considered; and correlation only suggests causality. 42 pp. Refs. (MJP)

This report is part of the RAND Corporation Paper series. The paper was a product of the RAND Corporation from 1948 to 2003 that captured speeches, memorials, and derivative research, usually prepared on authors' own time and meant to be the scholarly or scientific contribution of individual authors to their professional fields. Papers were less formal than reports and did not require rigorous peer review.

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.

The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.